The manner in which users may interact with electronic devices is evolving based on new developments in sensing technology. For example, depth sensors are becoming more prevalent for specific sensing applications. Depth sensors may be capable of sensing a distance to a target from a device, and along these lines to sense gestures and/or motions made in three dimensions, etc. A common use for depth sensing is in specialized user interfaces for video games. Depth-based user interfaces may sense position, motion and/or gestures made by a game-player. The video game system may then translate the sensed depth information into inputs for controlling a character in a video game, etc. Other examples of applications that may employ depth sensing include, but are not limited to, user interface inputs to a computer (e.g., to manipulate a pointing device in a manner similar to a mouse), facial identification, facial feature tracking for mapping movement to an avatar, object targeting, manipulation, etc. for various robotics applications, etc.
While depth sensors may be designed for any one of the above example applications, it is much more difficult to design a sensor generally applicable to a variety of applications. At least one challenge when contemplating a “general-purpose” depth sensor is that close-range sensing (e.g., within one meter), mid-range sensing (e.g., between one to three meters) and long range sensing (e.g., over three meters) all comprise different equipment configurations. In particular, an example depth sensor may include at least one red, green and blue (RGB) sensor (e.g., at least two RGB sensors may be used to visually determine depth). For infrared (IR) depth sensing, the example depth sensor may also include at least one IR emitter and at least one IR receiver. The arrangement of these components within the depth sensor, the focusing of the components, the configuration of the components for operation based on different depth-sensing methodologies, etc. may vary depending on various factors such as, for example, the targeted sensing depth, the environment in which depth sensing is occurring, the amount of motion expected with respect to either the target object to be sensed or the depth sensor itself, the depth-sensing application, etc.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.